You don't have to do all of them this week, just the first two, but we recommend you do so that you can find out about any problems as soon as possible (and hopefully resolve them). If you do have any problems, please record them in the Tech Problems topic in the discussion forum.
Induction Activity 1
Attend the presentation broadcast on YouTube
Monday 12th November 2012 at 14:00-15:00
Most weeks will have a scheduled presentation by a guest speaker or speakers. The presentations will be delivered using Google Hangouts on Air. You do not need to install any special software, you just need to be able to view YouTube to see the live broadcast. If you want to participate in discussion during the broadcast, both with fellow participants and the presenters, you will also need to be able to chat, comment or tweet.
This first activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
Access YouTube
Participate in the conversation
1) Can you see the YouTube clip below and play it? If your computer does not have speakers or you work in a shared space, you may need to make sure you have headphones available so you can hear the video (and not disturb colleagues).
2) We are using the Disqus tool in this MOOC (Note: While the Disqus comment tool below allows you to log in using either your already existing Gmail, Facebook, Twitter or Disqus accounts, we've found that it is most responsive if you have a dedicated Disqus account (assuming you don't mind setting up yet another account))
[Note: the discussions in Disqus remain open to contribution at any time, so you don't have to limit your contribution to only during the broadcast.]
The Task for Week 2 will require participants to post to the discussion forum.
Discussion Forums and eMail Lists are two of the oldest and most successful ways for communities to engage in conversation online. GoogleGroups is an especially good tool for this, because it seamlessly incorporates both tools. When you join the GoogleGroup you can participate in the discussions using the web interface. However, you may find this blocked by your employer. Luckily, if you set up your preferences appropriately you can receive all posts to the discussion forum in your email inbox and you can post to the forum just by replying to that email. Another advantage of this feature is that if you have a phone that has an email feature, you can also participate while you are out and about.
This second activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
Access the GoogleGroup
Post messages
Send and receive messages by email
1) Can you access the page that the Supporting Community Empowerment Google Group is located at? The discussion forum has been set so that anyone can read the posts, but you have to be registered in order to take part in the conversation.
2) We recommend that you register using an email address that you can check your email inbox from work (such as registering using your work email address - don't worry, your email address remains hidden from the other users).
3) By default you only see new messages when you visit the GoogleGroups web page. This means you won't necessarily know when there are new messages and if the website is blocked at your work place you obviously won't get to check either. You can get round this by setting your preferences so that new messages are emailed to you at the address you used when you registered. This has the added benefit that you can continue to participate in the conversation merely by replying to those emails.
Induction Activity 3
Register a Blogging Service
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012 [links to various blogging tools are listed below]
The Task for Week 3 will require participants to post to a blog.
Although a blog is essentially an online journal where you can write your reflections on various topics, be they school dinners or the state of the world economy, they can also be a great substitute for creating a website for your organisation or project.
This third activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
Create a blog
Post an article on it
Share it with each other
Comment on each other's blog posts
1) Here are a couple of the most popular blogging tools to have a look at - feel free to pick which ever one you feel most comfortable with. www.wordpress.com (One of the internet's most popular blog tools and the one that's probably most suited to use for a project's website) www.blogger.com (Blogger is owned by Google, so if you have a Gmail account and want to have as few passwords for everything as possible, this might be a good option)
2) Once you have chosen your blog service and set up an account, have a go at posting your first message. It doesn't have to be anything world shattering, most people's first post is something along the lines of "Hello world - is this working and is anyone listening?". You could always add that you've started this blog because it was a task set for you in the Supporting Community Empowerment MOOC (have a go at turning those words into a link back to this wiki http://minimooc.wikispaces.com and don't forget to tag your posts with #SCEminiMOOC).
3) Thousands of blogs sit on the internet unvisited. Mainly because no one knows about them and especially search engines don't know about them. If you want to be visited you need to share a link to your blog. Post a message in the GoogleGroup and let us know where it is. You can also tweet the address (URL) if you have a twitter account. The added benefit of this is that these links to your website will eventually be discovered by search engines and other people will start to find your site too.
4) Visit the blogs that other participants have shared and see what they're saying. If they've allowed commenting, leave them a message, perhaps even including a link to your own blog (the more links the more likely the search engines will find you).
Induction Activity 4
Register and Play with the Course Wiki
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012 [no link - you're already here]
The Task for Week 4 will require you to post something to the WikiProjects page on this wiki.
Wikis can be another good basis for a project website. Though it's harder to make them as pretty as blogs, if you are involved in a highly collaborative project that is generating lots of information a wiki might be easier to administer.
This forth activity is your opportunity to:
Register with WikiSpaces
Make some edits to our scratch-pad page
1) Once you've signed up to edit this wiki (via the sign in option at top right), you will also have an account with wikispaces, which means you can create your own wiki(s) for free.
2) Go to the scratch-pad page here and click edit. Don't worry about deleting or messing it up, we created it for you to experiment with. Also have a look at the page history. It is a common feature of wikis to be able to follow what edits have been made, by whom and when. If you do set up your own wiki, you'll see that it is possible to set the permissions for different pages - so you'll notice you can't edit every page on this wiki.
Induction Activity 5
Do Nothing!
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012 [No link for this activity]
You'll be pleased to hear you don't have to sign up to anything to do the Task for Week 5. This task will be using the 'Forms' feature of Google Docs (docs.google.com), which is a useful tool for collecting survey data. If you'd like to use forms for your own projects, you can find more information at http://support.google.com/drive/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1360904&parent=2811744&ctx=topic. You'll need a Google account to create your own forms.
Induction Activity 6
Register with a Photo Sharing Service
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012 [Pick a link from those suggested below]
The Task for Week 6 will require participants to post a photo to a Photo Sharing service and share it with the course participants.
If you are not already registered with one of these services, you will need to set one up. There are a range of services to choose from (see below). If you have a mobile phone that takes pictures, all of the listed ones will allow you to upload pictures directly from your phone. As well as the obvious use for sharing photos you can also use these services for a variety of activities - for example for Week 2 we uploaded images of all the quotes we used for the printed promotional cards so that they could be embedded in a slide show (you could do this as a simple way of sharing a presentation too) - see Week 2.
This sixth and final activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
Create a photo sharing account
Post one or more images on it
Share an image with the rest of us
1) There are a number of different services you could use for sharing images these are four of the most popular (they can all be used in conjunction with mobile devices): flickr.com - Probably the most famous of them all and now you can login with your Google or Facebook logins, so no need to create yet another account! picasa.google.com - Picasa is integrated with your Google account, but also provides a desktop application that allows you to edit (enhance) and organise your photos on your computer. Instagram.com - Instagram is targeted at mobile phone users. It allows you to edit your image and then upload it or share it via twitter and Facebook. facebook.com - If you are already a Facebook user you can use your Facebook photo albums.
2) Maybe you already have some images you'd like to share? Take the opportunity to try out some of the upload methods available with your chosen service.
3) Find out how to share one of your images (either a link or an embed tag) and share it with us in the Google Group
Monday 12th November
This week is all about getting set up with the technology we'll be using for the MOOC and finding out whether you can access it.There are six activities, each of which are preparation for the Tasks in the coming weeks:
1) YouTube broadcast and live chat
2) Discussion Forums
3) Blogging
4) Wikis
5) Google Forms
6) Photo Sharing
You don't have to do all of them this week, just the first two, but we recommend you do so that you can find out about any problems as soon as possible (and hopefully resolve them). If you do have any problems, please record them in the Tech Problems topic in the discussion forum.
Induction Activity 1
Attend the presentation broadcast on YouTube
Monday 12th November 2012 at 14:00-15:00Most weeks will have a scheduled presentation by a guest speaker or speakers. The presentations will be delivered using Google Hangouts on Air. You do not need to install any special software, you just need to be able to view YouTube to see the live broadcast. If you want to participate in discussion during the broadcast, both with fellow participants and the presenters, you will also need to be able to chat, comment or tweet.
This first activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
1) Can you see the YouTube clip below and play it? If your computer does not have speakers or you work in a shared space, you may need to make sure you have headphones available so you can hear the video (and not disturb colleagues).
2) We are using the Disqus tool in this MOOC (Note: While the Disqus comment tool below allows you to log in using either your already existing Gmail, Facebook, Twitter or Disqus accounts, we've found that it is most responsive if you have a dedicated Disqus account (assuming you don't mind setting up yet another account))
[Note: the discussions in Disqus remain open to contribution at any time, so you don't have to limit your contribution to only during the broadcast.]
comments powered by Disqus
Induction Activity 2
Register on and post to the discussion forum
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012[link to GoogleGroup page]
The Task for Week 2 will require participants to post to the discussion forum.
Discussion Forums and eMail Lists are two of the oldest and most successful ways for communities to engage in conversation online. GoogleGroups is an especially good tool for this, because it seamlessly incorporates both tools. When you join the GoogleGroup you can participate in the discussions using the web interface. However, you may find this blocked by your employer. Luckily, if you set up your preferences appropriately you can receive all posts to the discussion forum in your email inbox and you can post to the forum just by replying to that email. Another advantage of this feature is that if you have a phone that has an email feature, you can also participate while you are out and about.
This second activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
1) Can you access the page that the Supporting Community Empowerment Google Group is located at? The discussion forum has been set so that anyone can read the posts, but you have to be registered in order to take part in the conversation.
2) We recommend that you register using an email address that you can check your email inbox from work (such as registering using your work email address - don't worry, your email address remains hidden from the other users).
3) By default you only see new messages when you visit the GoogleGroups web page. This means you won't necessarily know when there are new messages and if the website is blocked at your work place you obviously won't get to check either. You can get round this by setting your preferences so that new messages are emailed to you at the address you used when you registered. This has the added benefit that you can continue to participate in the conversation merely by replying to those emails.
Induction Activity 3
Register a Blogging Service
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012[links to various blogging tools are listed below]
The Task for Week 3 will require participants to post to a blog.
Although a blog is essentially an online journal where you can write your reflections on various topics, be they school dinners or the state of the world economy, they can also be a great substitute for creating a website for your organisation or project.
This third activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
1) Here are a couple of the most popular blogging tools to have a look at - feel free to pick which ever one you feel most comfortable with.
www.wordpress.com (One of the internet's most popular blog tools and the one that's probably most suited to use for a project's website)
www.blogger.com (Blogger is owned by Google, so if you have a Gmail account and want to have as few passwords for everything as possible, this might be a good option)
2) Once you have chosen your blog service and set up an account, have a go at posting your first message. It doesn't have to be anything world shattering, most people's first post is something along the lines of "Hello world - is this working and is anyone listening?". You could always add that you've started this blog because it was a task set for you in the Supporting Community Empowerment MOOC (have a go at turning those words into a link back to this wiki http://minimooc.wikispaces.com and don't forget to tag your posts with #SCEminiMOOC).
3) Thousands of blogs sit on the internet unvisited. Mainly because no one knows about them and especially search engines don't know about them. If you want to be visited you need to share a link to your blog. Post a message in the GoogleGroup and let us know where it is. You can also tweet the address (URL) if you have a twitter account. The added benefit of this is that these links to your website will eventually be discovered by search engines and other people will start to find your site too.
4) Visit the blogs that other participants have shared and see what they're saying. If they've allowed commenting, leave them a message, perhaps even including a link to your own blog (the more links the more likely the search engines will find you).
Induction Activity 4
Register and Play with the Course Wiki
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012[no link - you're already here]
The Task for Week 4 will require you to post something to the WikiProjects page on this wiki.
Wikis can be another good basis for a project website. Though it's harder to make them as pretty as blogs, if you are involved in a highly collaborative project that is generating lots of information a wiki might be easier to administer.
This forth activity is your opportunity to:
- Register with WikiSpaces
- Make some edits to our scratch-pad page
1) Once you've signed up to edit this wiki (via the sign in option at top right), you will also have an account with wikispaces, which means you can create your own wiki(s) for free.2) Go to the scratch-pad page here and click edit. Don't worry about deleting or messing it up, we created it for you to experiment with. Also have a look at the page history. It is a common feature of wikis to be able to follow what edits have been made, by whom and when. If you do set up your own wiki, you'll see that it is possible to set the permissions for different pages - so you'll notice you can't edit every page on this wiki.
Induction Activity 5
Do Nothing!
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012[No link for this activity]
You'll be pleased to hear you don't have to sign up to anything to do the Task for Week 5. This task will be using the 'Forms' feature of Google Docs (docs.google.com), which is a useful tool for collecting survey data. If you'd like to use forms for your own projects, you can find more information at http://support.google.com/drive/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=1360904&parent=2811744&ctx=topic. You'll need a Google account to create your own forms.
Induction Activity 6
Register with a Photo Sharing Service
Sometime during week beginning 12th November 2012[Pick a link from those suggested below]
The Task for Week 6 will require participants to post a photo to a Photo Sharing service and share it with the course participants.
If you are not already registered with one of these services, you will need to set one up. There are a range of services to choose from (see below). If you have a mobile phone that takes pictures, all of the listed ones will allow you to upload pictures directly from your phone. As well as the obvious use for sharing photos you can also use these services for a variety of activities - for example for Week 2 we uploaded images of all the quotes we used for the printed promotional cards so that they could be embedded in a slide show (you could do this as a simple way of sharing a presentation too) - see Week 2.
This sixth and final activity is your opportunity to check that you are able to:
1) There are a number of different services you could use for sharing images these are four of the most popular (they can all be used in conjunction with mobile devices):
flickr.com - Probably the most famous of them all and now you can login with your Google or Facebook logins, so no need to create yet another account!
picasa.google.com - Picasa is integrated with your Google account, but also provides a desktop application that allows you to edit (enhance) and organise your photos on your computer.
Instagram.com - Instagram is targeted at mobile phone users. It allows you to edit your image and then upload it or share it via twitter and Facebook.
facebook.com - If you are already a Facebook user you can use your Facebook photo albums.
2) Maybe you already have some images you'd like to share? Take the opportunity to try out some of the upload methods available with your chosen service.
3) Find out how to share one of your images (either a link or an embed tag) and share it with us in the Google Group